Abstract: Victor Motogna was born on 3 November 1885 in the village of Breaza, Bistriţa-Năsăud county. In June 1905 he graduaded from the Frontier Guard’s High-School of Năsăud. Between 1905-1909 he studied History and Latin at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj. In June 1923 he was awarded the Ph.D degree by the University of Cernăuţi. At the Faculty of Letters in Cluj he passed the exam for Reader at the end of the following year. His rich historical research produced a series of writings published in ”Anuarul liceului” (Dej), ”Transilvania” (Cluj), ”Revista Archivelor” (Bucharest), ”Revista istorică” (Bucharest), ”Analele Academiei Române” (Bucharest), ”Cercetări istorice” (Iaşi) and in different books. He was a known medievalist. He collaborated with Emil Panaitescu, the archeologist from Cluj, and historian Nicolae Iorga, who published his studies in’Revista Istorică’. They had a conclusive correspondence but Iorga’s letters were lost in the aftermath of the Vienna Dictate. Due to his dedication and competence, Cornel Grofşoreanu named him president of the History section of Institutul Social Banat-Crişana and member in the editorial staff of its magazine. He also was a member of the editorial staff who published the weighty tome Banatul de altădată at Timişoara, in 1944. Once the communist regime was established, the cultural life of the country was irreversibly harmed. In the first years of Bolshevism a lot of cultural institutions were abolished, among them Institutul Social Banat-Crişana (1946) and Regionala Astrei Bănăţene (1948). In 1948 the Greek Catholic cult was abolished too and a campaign of terror was launched against its ministers and members. Victor Motogna and his family were Greek Catholics and this suffering was presented by dr. Cornel Pop –Motogna’s brother in law – in his book Iadul Comunist – Amintiri şi destăinuiri published by Signata Publishing House, Timişoara, 2003. In the summer of 1948, because of these political abuses, Victor Motogna became seriously ill. He died on 5 July the same year.
